577 Records
The latest release from drummer Tony Irving and sax player Massimo Magee is a forty-eight-minute blast-off of improv craziness that holds the listener by the neck and very rarely lets go. Although the sax starts warm and smoky on opener “Vitriol”, as you can imagine by the title, that subtlety doesn’t last very long and begins to scrape and scree out of the speakers, leaving a loose trail of dusty, swirling breadcrumbs for Tony’s restless, barrelling drums to follow relentlessly. This game of tag between the upper register sax and the lower and blunter drums is the raison d’etre for the whole of Vitriol And The Third Oraculum pretty well, and it is the joy and abandon of this particular pairing that really shows through.
The enthusiasm is evident and the fact is that this duo, with no reliance on electronics or other paraphernalia to clog up the mix, has more opportunity to force the listener to attempt to follow their convoluted directions and joy-filled flights of fancy. It is
rather like asking someone on acid to explain how to travel from one side of London to the other. You can try and follow the sense of it, but it sure is going to be difficult. At times the sax sounds as though it is begging to be understood, with the more plaintive passages lending a greater grounding to the drums, giving a wilder effect to the more vibrant and volatile sections. The drums’ constant roll and tumble comes on like a roiling sea, but is somehow muted in the mix ,with even the cymbals barely troubling the upper register, leaving the scorching sky entirely to the saxes.
Over half of the album is taken up by the final track “The Third Oraculum”, which opens with a touch more reason, but the drums are just a turbulent constant that drive their way through the entire soundscape. There is no opportunity for inertia here and
the sense of momentum once achieved is barely reduced. At times, there is a little more space from Massimo to allow the listener to appreciate Tony’s relentless energy and invention, and I think this is necessary, because it really is a constantly evolving layering of bedrock. Is it harder for a drummer who is playing to something sensed from their partner rather than laying down a rhythm and letting that set the pace? I have no idea, but the invention here is very impressive. It is also hard to tell who is leading. My guess would be Massimo is dragging Tony through the wild undergrowth of his mind — but it could entirely be the other way around.
The evolutionary nature of the sax is too extreme to liken to a butterfly, but it is that single-minded determination to take the listener to a particular place, regardless of the hazards and pitfalls that journey may entail, that demands the comparison. It is certainly some place that you will have never seen before and it isn’t always easy going, as the sax emits some almost wounded tones at points along the way. The drums could almost be baiting it; forcing it to go beyond what would be a reasonable feat of endurance. There is cruel, careless streak on Vitriol And The Third Oraculum at times that can change the mood, but above all of this is the ever-astounding feats of reckless abandon that they pull from one another.
-Mr Olivetti-
The latest release from drummer Tony Irving and sax player Massimo Magee is a forty-eight-minute blast-off of improv craziness that holds the listener by the neck and very rarely lets go. Although the sax starts warm and smoky on opener “Vitriol”, as you can imagine by the title, that subtlety doesn’t last very long and begins to scrape and scree out of the speakers, leaving a loose trail of dusty, swirling breadcrumbs for Tony’s restless, barrelling drums to follow relentlessly. This game of tag between the upper register sax and the lower and blunter drums is the raison d’etre for the whole of Vitriol And The Third Oraculum pretty well, and it is the joy and abandon of this particular pairing that really shows through.
